Bill Text: TX HB3570 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Comm Sub
Bill Title: Relating to restricting access to sexual material harmful to minors on an Internet website.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Republican 34-5)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-05-11 - Placed on General State Calendar [HB3570 Detail]
Download: Texas-2023-HB3570-Comm_Sub.html
| 88R22751 SHH-D | |||
| By: Schatzline, Ordaz, Schaefer, | H.B. No. 3570 | ||
| A. Johnson of Harris, et al. | |||
| Substitute the following for H.B. No. 3570: | |||
| By: Lozano | C.S.H.B. No. 3570 | ||
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| relating to restricting access to sexual material harmful to minors | ||
| on an Internet website. | ||
| BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
| SECTION 1. The heading to Chapter 120, Business & Commerce | ||
| Code, is amended to read as follows: | ||
| CHAPTER 120. SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AND INTERNET WEBSITES | ||
| SECTION 2. Chapter 120, Business & Commerce Code, is | ||
| amended by adding Subchapter E to read as follows: | ||
| SUBCHAPTER E. SEXUAL MATERIAL HARMFUL TO MINORS | ||
| Sec. 120.201. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter: | ||
| (1) "Commercial entity" includes a corporation, | ||
| limited liability company, partnership, limited partnership, sole | ||
| proprietorship, or other legally recognized business entity. | ||
| (2) "Distribute" means to issue, sell, give, provide, | ||
| deliver, transfer, transmute, circulate, or disseminate by any | ||
| means. | ||
| (3) "Minor" means an individual younger than 18 years | ||
| of age. | ||
| (4) "News-gathering organization" includes: | ||
| (A) an employee of a newspaper, news publication, | ||
| or news source, printed or on an online or mobile platform, of | ||
| current news and public interest, who is acting within the course | ||
| and scope of that employment and can provide documentation of that | ||
| employment with the newspaper, news publication, or news source; | ||
| and | ||
| (B) an employee of a radio broadcast station, | ||
| television broadcast station, cable television operator, or wire | ||
| service who is acting within the course and scope of that employment | ||
| and can provide documentation of that employment. | ||
| (5) "Publish" means to communicate or make information | ||
| available to another person or entity on a publicly available | ||
| Internet website. | ||
| (6) "Sexual material harmful to minors" includes any | ||
| material that: | ||
| (A) the average person, applying contemporary | ||
| community standards, would find, taking the material as a whole and | ||
| with respect to minors, is designed to appeal to or pander to the | ||
| prurient interest; | ||
| (B) in a manner patently offensive with respect | ||
| to minors, exploits, is devoted to, or principally consists of | ||
| descriptions of actual, simulated, or animated display or depiction | ||
| of: | ||
| (i) a person's pubic hair, anus, or genitals | ||
| or the nipple of the female breast; | ||
| (ii) touching, caressing, or fondling of | ||
| nipples, breasts, buttocks, anuses, or genitals; or | ||
| (iii) sexual intercourse, masturbation, | ||
| sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation, flagellation, excretory | ||
| functions, exhibitions, or any other sexual act; and | ||
| (C) taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, | ||
| artistic, political, or scientific value for minors. | ||
| (7) "Transactional data" means a sequence of | ||
| information that documents an exchange, agreement, or transfer | ||
| between an individual, commercial entity, or third party used for | ||
| the purpose of satisfying a request or event. The term includes | ||
| records from mortgage, education, and employment entities. | ||
| Sec. 120.202. PUBLICATION OF MATERIAL HARMFUL TO MINORS. | ||
| (a) A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes | ||
| or distributes on an Internet website, including a social media | ||
| platform, sexual material harmful to minors shall use reasonable | ||
| age verification methods as described by Section 120.203 to verify | ||
| that an individual attempting to access the material is 18 years of | ||
| age or older. | ||
| (b) A commercial entity that performs the age verification | ||
| required by Subsection (a) or a third party that performs the age | ||
| verification required by Subsection (a) may not retain any | ||
| identifying information of the individual after access has been | ||
| granted to the material. | ||
| (c) A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally | ||
| publishes or distributes material on an Internet website that is | ||
| found to have violated this section is liable to the parent or | ||
| guardian of the minor for damages resulting from a minor's access to | ||
| the material, including court costs and reasonable attorney's fees | ||
| as ordered by the court, except as provided by Subsection (d). | ||
| (d) A social media platform is not liable as provided by | ||
| Subsection (c) unless the platform fails to remove or restrict | ||
| through age verification sexual material harmful to minors before | ||
| the 45th day after the date on which the material was published or | ||
| distributed. | ||
| (e) A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally | ||
| publishes or distributes material on an Internet website, or a | ||
| third party that performs the age verification required by | ||
| Subsection (a) that is found to have knowingly retained identifying | ||
| information of an individual after access has been granted to the | ||
| individual is liable to the individual for damages resulting from | ||
| retaining the identifying information, including court costs and | ||
| reasonable attorney's fees as ordered by the court. | ||
| Sec. 120.203. REASONABLE AGE VERIFICATION METHODS. (a) In | ||
| this section, "digital identification" means information stored on | ||
| a digital network that may be accessed by a commercial entity and | ||
| that serves as proof of the identity of an individual. | ||
| (b) A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally | ||
| publishes or distributes material on an Internet website or a third | ||
| party that performs age verification under this subchapter shall | ||
| require an individual to: | ||
| (1) provide digital identification; or | ||
| (2) comply with a commercial age verification system | ||
| that verifies age using: | ||
| (A) government-issued identification; or | ||
| (B) a commercially reasonable method that relies | ||
| on public or private transactional data to verify the age of an | ||
| individual. | ||
| Sec. 120.204. APPLICABILITY OF SUBCHAPTER. (a) This | ||
| subchapter does not apply to a bona fide news or public interest | ||
| broadcast, website video, report, or event and may not be construed | ||
| to affect the rights of a news-gathering organization. | ||
| (b) An Internet service provider, or its affiliates or | ||
| subsidiaries, a search engine, or a cloud service provider may not | ||
| be held to have violated this subchapter solely for providing | ||
| access or connection to or from a website or other information or | ||
| content on the Internet or on a facility, system, or network not | ||
| under that provider's control, including transmission, | ||
| downloading, intermediate storage, access software, or other | ||
| services to the extent the provider or search engine is not | ||
| responsible for the creation of the content that constitutes sexual | ||
| material harmful to minors. | ||
| SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023. | ||
